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Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the latest from director Chris Nolan, a thriller from the near future where your mind can be the scene of the crime. (Published Tuesday, Mar 16, 2010)

Updated at 2:48 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 30, 2012

When the gods close a door, they open a window. And in the case of Tom Hardy, the door is "Mad Max: Fury Road" and the window is the next Batman film.

Hardy will reunite with "Inception" director Chris Nolan with a "lead role" in the upcoming chapter of the Batman saga, according to Deadline. This, quite simply, is great news.

PHOTOS: Inception Pre-release Party

We were saddened when news broke that shooting on "Mad Max: Fury Road" was being delayed (because of "Happy Feet 2"? Really?). But if the upside is that it's freed Hardy up for "Batman 3" or whatever it's gonna be called, we can live with it.

Better still is the idea that Hardy would presumably play the villain. If you saw Hardy's breakout performance in "Bronson," you know he's more than up to the task, and could easily nail the part of The Riddler, which was rumored to be going to fellow "Inception" alum Joseph Gordon-Levitt.